Mormonism is not what letter writer stated

Recently a friend of mine said to me: “Mormonism sure is a strange religion.” How so, I asked, and was shown Doug Wingeier’s letter in your Oct 24 issue.

Mr. Wingeier makes a fine point that we should not base our vote solely on a candidate’s religion. Yet one’s religious beliefs often determine how one leads his life and what is his or her world view, and these are valid considerations in determining how one votes.

I then read Mr. Wingeier’s synopsis of Mormon tenets and was shocked. I am not a Mormon, but this was far removed from what little I did know about them. What to do? I went to the World Book Encyclopedia and looked it up. There were the tenets I had expected to see in stark contrast with the mishmash presented by Mr. Wingeier.

He strongly objects to “spreading misinformation” when it comes to the president, but, it seems, not so much regarding his opponent. The discrepancies between Wingeier’s Mormonism and that of the World Book is so great that it is either a case of willful ignorance or deliberate malice. It only took a moment to get the truth, but how much damage was done to those who just believe what they read?

The Naturalist's Corner

This year will mark the 117th annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC.) The CBC is the longest-lived and largest citizen-science project in the world.

The count began in 1900. It was the brainchild of Frank Chapman, one of the officers of the fledgling Audubon Society. Chapman created the “bird census” as an alternative to the traditional Christmas “side-hunt,” a contest where groups would shoulder their arms and hit the fields and/or woods — the team that came back with the greatest number of corpses would be declared the winner.